About

The Rabbit and Turtle Dance, also known as The Tortoise and The Hare Race Again, is a viral video of a children's theatrical dance performance from Beijing, China, that began gaining traction online in late September and early October 2025. The performance is a modern recreation of the classic "Tortoise and the Hare" children's story, and features children hopping and crawling across the stage like bunny rabbits and turtles. After the dance performance went viral on TikTok, it prompted debates and discussions online about whether the "bunny kids" or the "turtle kids" had the more strenuous choreography. Internet users also began posting videos recreating the rabbit and the turtle team's dance moves as it spread, turning their movements into a workout challenge.

Origin

On July 28th, 2025, YouTuber^[1] Itzhak Cheung posted a video of a children's dance production put on by the Beijing Mengqi Art Center. The dance was titled,《龜兔又賽跑》or "The Tortoise and the Hare Race Again." The dance was originally choreographed by Cao Lei and won first place at the 19th Beijing Dance Competition in the summer of 2025.^[2] The YouTube upload gathered over 1 million views in three months.

On September 16th, 2025, TikToker^[3] @trn89312 posted a recording of the dance that gathered over 50 million views and 6.5 million likes in three weeks.

On September 24th, Instagram^[6] user @thirdculturechinese posted a video giving more context to the "Tortoise and the Hare Race Again" dance performance, explaining that it is meant to be a piece of satire directed at the Chinese education system. The bunnies represent "gifted" students, and the turtles represent hardworking and diligent students, with both teams being placed under the same pressure to perform in a system that only rewards testing and numbers.

Spread

On September 29th, 2025, TikToker^[9] @.monosan posted a video animating the choreography with characters meant to represent the rabbits as "naturally smart" students burdened with the high expectations set on them, and turtles as dedicated and ambitious students who have to work harder to keep up at school. The video gathered over 5.9 million views and 1 million likes in a week.

Several internet users posted videos trying to recreate the children's dance moves, and debated as to whether the rabbits or the turtles' choreography was more challenging.

On September 24th, 2025, TikToker^[4] @frankie.brando posted a video showing her and her friends doing a rabbit hop in which they land on their hands and kick up their feet, gathering over 2.5 million plays and 200,000 likes on a post captioned, "Rabbit and turtle dance in real life how did we do?"

On September 26th, TikToker^[8] @alan_does_musicals posted a video recreating the bunny and turtle dance moves, writing, "I can confirm the turtles deserve more respect." The video gathered over 15 million views and 2 million likes in a week.

On October 7th, the official Instagram^[7] account for the Leeds-based Northern Ballet dance company posted a video recreating the choreography, writing, "We can confirm that the Tortoise and Hare dance is an excellent warm up," and gathering over 700,000 views and 36,000 likes in two days.

On October 8th, 2025, Instagram^[5] Reels user @alexdwong posted a video recreating the turtle kids' moves, balancing on his arms while doing crunches and then crab-walking off-screen. The video was captioned, "I can confirm the turtle kids have it way harder than the bunny kids," gathering over 4 million views and 190,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References